Trump’s jokes on Canada as the 51st state aren’t funny, political analyst says

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump loves to jibe that Canada could become the 51st American state.

In his latest post on Truth Social, he claims many Canadians want that to happen too. He also suggests that the Unites States “subsidizes” Canada.

But Stewart Prest, a political science professor at UBC, tells 1130 NewsRadio these comments are not just jokes, they are an affront to Canada’s sovereignty.

He says he doesn’t understand why the federal government and other political leaders appear to be bending to Trump’s will on things like border security.
And he says chaos in Ottawa is not helping Canada’s reputation.

“The country really could have picked a better time to have a full blown leadership crisis. Although, these two things are linked in some ways,” he says. “We saw that, in her resignation letter, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland mentioned the threat posed by Donald Trump.”

Trump has hinged his threat to put in a 25 per cent duty on Canadian exports and on Ottawa fixing problems at the borders. But Prest says securing national borders has always been the responsibility of each side, even though Canada and the U.S. have long collaborated on border issues.

Prest says Canada needs a full throated response to combat tariff threats, along with border security issues and a growing laundry list of disagreements. He says that response must be a strong one.

“Bullies don’t stop because you do what they demand that you do,” he says. “They don’t stop picking on someone who does their homework for them.”